January 2026 Friday’s e-links: Learning About Venezuela

Every once in a while, (and sometimes each day) I listen to a great podcast, enjoy an article, or see a good video that I want to share with you. These are my e-links.

Last updated 1/09/26

With Venezuela in the headlines, it made sense to return to the Caracas Chronicles. Focusing on issues through a Venezuelan lens, the website has been my go-to place mostly for facts about their hyperinflation since 2017. However, I could never just stop with their monetary problems. From there, always, a slew of facts led me far from my original search. Looking at Venezuela’s money problems, nine years ago, I wound up with the following graph. As you can see, it says volumes about everything from ceilings to shortages to black markets. It lets us leap from a government that fixed prices to the supermarket lines that resulted:

Now, I’ve been reading their 1970s history of oil nationalization (called “The Theft That Never Was: Inside Venezuela’s 1976 Oil Takeover”) and so much more.